SMF

The question before you: which do you prefer? This brush shall be used, for hard soaps.

I never came to terms with my Vie Long horse hair (50/50 mane/tail hair) brush, but I really liked the handle, so I had it re-knotted with TGN 2-band finest. The face-feel of the horse turned me off. I have just 2 boar brushes (an SOC and an Omega B&B Essential boar), but I really like both of them.

They are different. I can't say I prefer one over the other; it's more in the nature of peach or strawberry ice cream?

I bought two horse hair brushes by Vie-Long. I only tried the smaller one and found that it pulled all of the lather deep into the knot, all but denying me access to it, so I never tried either one of them again. (I still have them.)

My favorite boar brush is a Semogue 1305, which has a grade of bristle that I haven't experienced elsewhere and which I really like. With my current technique of making lather on top of the soap, this brush seems to work even better for me than my badger and synthetic brushes.

- Murray

Yup, what jar wrote. It's comparing apples and oranges.

I have one horse and it took a long time for it to get good and stop feeling the way it did when it was new to me (stiff and scratchy). It works nicely, but so do my boar brushes.I may not want any more horse brushes, but I won't get rid of my only one either.

Thank you, everyone, for your input. Are there any other makers, besides Vie Long?

Check out ebay seller "jankdc". I believe that Zenith makes some brushes with a horsehair knot.

Some time ago,I experimented with Vie-Long horse brushes, but determined after a while that they were not for me.
Neither the feel nor the initial smelll were the problem, but horse hair has apparently a known tendency to knot and out several brushes I tried the majority (white horse hair seemed to be unaffected) started shedding.

Although I own a few, I don't use boar brushes regularly either and prefer a good synthetic (e.g. Mühle Silvertp Fibre®) or a two-band badger brush (e.g. Shavemac, Thäter) for the kind of job you have in mind.

Horse hair turned out to be an interesting experiment for a few months, but ultimately I found them less suitable than other brush materials.


B.

Earlier this year the local Target store was showing the Cremo horse hair brush by Vie-Long on its shelves.
I had a chance to examine one up close, and it felt nice, but the price was more than I could get a
Vie-Long 12705 for online. This week on visiting Target, I noticed the Cremo brush had disappeared from
the shelves.

After reading about tangling problems with horse hair, and the tendency of some to shed, I decided it
was not worth looking in to, especially with the results I get using a Plissoft 24mm synthetic.

I can honestly say I have had enjoyable lathers with all types of brushes. Based on brush to brush levels of enjoyment based on long term rotation among them, here are my orders of preference, in descending order:

synthetic
badger
boar
horse

In response to your original question, that means I favor boar more than I favor horse, but I favor synthetic above all others.

I like horse hair brushes, because they are versatile. Boars are perfect for hard roundels of triple-milled soap, and badgers rule, for soft creams. Horse hair brushes are good, for both. Once I grow my permanent beard, I will shave with a horse hair brush, and, straight razor, and, safety razor.